


twenty-one days of you

by ribroast



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Dehydration, Eventual Romance, Gay, Gay Keith (Voltron), Getting to Know Each Other, Kissing, LGBT, M/M, Reality TV, Slow Burn, Snakes, its explicit because im to nervous to put mature, keith and lance are naked and afraid contestants, klance, mentioning of other characters - Freeform, mlm, mlm author babie, nakie cuddling, they fall in LOVE babie, they nakie, this is gonna be such a fucking challenge to write but im gonna do it!!!!, uhhh cuddling, voltron legendary defender - Freeform, what even is this, yeayee!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22843195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ribroast/pseuds/ribroast
Summary: Keith signed up for naked and afraid excited to show off his awesome survival skills. lance signed up for naked and afraid because of loosing a dare. what they both didn't expect was to find love out of it.ORkeith and lance experience true vulnerability through 21 days of survival.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	twenty-one days of you

**Author's Note:**

> this idea popped into my head during English class this morning. i have no expectations for this lmao.  
> also credit to my best friend for the title name, i texted her "Fuck I need help. Writing naked and afraid klance story and I need a title." and she texted back "two dicks. two men" so there ya go.  
> i'm writing three days in each chapter and than one after the "show" so there's about 8 scheduled chapters!  
> *ALSO*  
> I am remodeling my account to make it look nicer! That means I'm taking a break from the one shots and focusing on this book to get it done. once I get this done I might orphan my other stories to get em off my page because they're not my best writing.  
> alright let's do this babie!

_**DAY 1** _

Keith woke up with a crick in his neck and to the sound of muffled gravel under the thick tires of the peculiar SUV. When it had picked him up, the driver merely grunted at him and pointed to the backseat, which Keith gladly took.

"Erm," The driver cleared his throat awkwardly, and Keith tried not to feel the palpable tension in the car around him.

"We're approaching the sight now. So you should start removing your clothes.."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, ok.." Keith cringed internally, glancing around at the cramped backseat.

Keith meekly peeled his shirt off, avoiding the driver's frequent gaze and shimmied out of his shorts. God, he knew he was going to be naked and it was going to be televised but this felt downright awkward and _dirty_. Especially because the driver was keeping one eye on him and the other eye on the winding road. Keith quickly grabbed the thin, burlap sack from the leather seat next to him and covered it over his genitals, adjusting the strap so it crossed around his body. Keith made eye contact with the driver this time and purposefully gave him an incredulous eyebrow, which got _both_ of his eyes on the road, just as they pulled into a small clearing. A blue SUV- was _Naked and Afraid_ _fucking sponsored_ by these stupid cars or something?- was already pulled up and a tall, tan man was leaning up against it. He burlap sack was adjusted the same way Keith's was- _thank god_ \- but his toned, smooth thigh was still visible, a slightly toned torso, as well as a defined v-cut leading down to a happy trail of sparse brown hair...

Anyway.

Before Keith knew it, the boy was looking up, blue eyes widening with some sort of "jumpy" emotion, and he stood up straight- how is that fucking possible??? he's like 6'000 feet tall????- and waved, a large smile on his face. Keith's posture deflated in exchange, anxiety quelling in his stomach, a low rumble reminding him that he had someone _accompanying_ _him_ on this cloth-less adventure. 

Keith had signed up for _Naked and Afraid_ truly to test himself. Shiro and Keith had gone camping all over the U.S; one year they camped in Yosemite for about 2 weeks. It was fucking awesome. But, Keith supposed the South Africa badlands were much more vast in habitat than Yosemite National Park. Keith glanced to the opposite of the clearing, where a few people stood, some holding big, chunky camera and more that stood on spindly legs, starkly standing out against the light brown dirt. A woman smiled and waved, walking up to the car and opening Keith's door to his disliking. 

"Don't be scared! We won't bite." The lady chirped, standing aside leaving room for Keith to hop out. Keith slid out of the car much to his dismay, tucking a piece of his raven hair behind a shockingly pale ear.

"Hi, I'm Suzy Cannon, and I'm the leader of the film crew here! If you'll just come over here," Suzy beckoned him away from the car, and Keith reluctantly looked at the other contestant who was _conveniently standing right in view of Keith's ass_ , and who was shamelessly staring back. Keith walked towards Suzy, who was waving him over with her electric blue nails. 

Suzy reminded Keith of his 1st grade teacher, Miss Patrece. She was this middle aged Indian lady who wore thin ankle pants every single day and had fly aways like no tomorrow. Keith doesn't understand why he makes this comparison, Miss Patrece is a whole different race than the asian Suzy Cannon, who also had a more "adventuresque" fashion preference; her cliche safari vest and cargo pants said it all, along with a pin that said "STRAIGHT ALLY". 

_That's comforting_ , thought Keith.

"You're Keith, correct?" Suzy glanced over at a clipboard sitting at one of the foldable tables set up all over the clearing. 

"Yep."

"Perfect! Like I said Keith, I'm Suzy, and this is my crew!" Suzy did awkward jazz hands and Keith glanced to the crew that might as well have been tall and broad because _damn, they sure did subtly include diversity into everything here_. Not that Keith was complaining, just once again another observation that floated in his skull.

"We're shooting _Naked and Afraid_ a bit differently this year! Instead of having cameras openly placed everywhere, we will secretly be catching camera footage to get a more realistic glance at yours and _Lance's_ survival." Before Keith could react to his contestants name, he slid up right next to Suzy. 

"Did you call me Suz?" He nudged her, and Suzy giggled.

"Right on time Lance. Keith, this is Lance, your partner for the next 21 days!" Suzy did some more awkward jazz hands and a "i'm getting paid a fuck ton" smile.

Lance had a wide smile on his face. Like he knew Keith already, and Keith had just cracked some funny quip. His eyes were shockingly blue from here, as well as his white smile that practically hurt Keith's eyes.

"'Sup Keith." Lance's eyes momentarily flicked up and down Keith's body, and landed on his face. He smiled wider- how is that fucking possible?- and held out a hand to shake. 

Keith ignored the more insistent discomfort in his gut and hesitantly shook Lance's hand. 

"Keith."

"Now that you two have met, we need to go over the you know, ground rules and film your introductions and stuff!" Suzy cheerily interrupted Lance's _'undressing Keith with his eyes'_ session that Keith gave him a glare for, and directed them to look at the large camera, a wide man standing behind it with a bored expression on his face. 

"Keith why don't you go first, Lance why don't you just, step aside," Suzy backed out of the shot, as well did Lance, who winked at Suzy and flirty said "No problem Suz."

Suz, haha, more like snooz, because Keith is going to find the nearest rock and bash his head in until he 'snoozes' forev-

"Keith?"Suzy pulled him back, and she brushed a strand of thin black hair out of her eyes. 

"I want you to say your name, age, and what you want from coming on the show! Make sure to bring on that super 'bad boy' vibes we're going for!"

"wait what? bad bo-"

"Go!"

"Uh- Hi, I'm Keith." He nervously looked to Suzy, who was now openly flirting with Lance, winking and silently laughing as if they were in a damn coffeeshop across the room from eachother and not in South Africa with Lance naked.

"Keith Kogane. I'm 19.." keith bitterly continued, looking back at the camera.

"And, what I expect from this show, is proving my survival experience. I've been camping multiple times, but I've always had supplies and-"

"Ok Keith, that was great!" Suzy cut him off, scuttling on camera to hurry Keith off.

"But I wasn't fini-"

"Alright Lance, it's your turn." Suzy's voice sounded about 10x more sugarier, and Keith wanted to vomit. Who even is this guy?

Lance smirked and cocked a hip, another large sliver of skin peeking from behind the burlap sack.

"The names' Lance, Lance McClain. I'm 18 and wanted to come on this show to show off my rockin naked body-"

Wait WHAT-

Lance winked and finger gunned, and Suzy laughed, clapping.

"That was excellent Lance! Alright, now that we have your interviews, let's go over the ground rules." Suzy brushed off whatever the hell just happened, leaving Keith absolutely shell shocked as her, Lance and the circus of film crew blundered off towards the open savanna out in front of them.

Keith felt his mouth fall open. 

The savanna was wide and had very few trees, a forest that was merely ant sized green flecks now was a thin layer on the bright blue horizon, not a cloud in the sky left to leave the sun beating down mercilessly on them.

Keith inhaled a deep breath of fresh air that smelled faintly of something Kieth couldn't put his finger on, and exhaled loudly, letting a smile crack his lips.

"Keith! Over here!" Suzy waved, and Keith snapped out of his daze and quickly jogged over.

***

The rules were simple.

1\. Stick to the designated route on the map given.

2\. Do NOT split up.

3\. Avoid swimming at ALL times/ as much as possible because of lethal Caimen.

That was really it. Which concerned Keith, because knowing Lance for the lengthy 30 minutes now, he seems to have broken about 5 _unsaid_ rules and they're only been in the wild for 25 minutes.

Suzy and her crew had vanished after about 15, and the first thing in Lance did was turn to Keith and say "You're lucky you have a nice ass, they don't blur those on here" with such a casual grin, Keith only grimaced with half as much fervor as he would of and quickly moved on.

Now, they were walking through the windless and fucking _hot_ savanna and Lance was breaking the rule of not being fucking annoying by singing "Tiny Dancer" under his breath over and over again. Ok, maybe that wasn't an actual rule but whatever!

"Is that the only song you know?" Keith whined when Lance restarted, clawing his way through waist high brush that tickled the inside of his pale thighs.

"No, I just like it. And just for you, I'm gonna restart AGAIN and sing it. You're so lucky! Your own private Lancey-Lance concert-"

"Did you just speak about yourself in third person?" Keith incredulously looks over his shoulder to a frowning Lance. 

He had his arms folded across his chest and his eyebrows were aggressively furrowed, as if he was thinking of something.

"Whatever mullet! You give me my third person narration, and I'll give you your bad haircut."

"I do NOT have a mullet!" Keith spun around completely, the bag going with him, and making it fully fly around his body, revealing himself. 

Keith looked down and back up, quickly covering himself with the burlap sack and intercepting Lance's shocked and hard gaze by snapping his fingers.

"Hello?! My eyes! They're not on my penis!" That seemed to mortify Lance enough, because he straightened up and made a "pft" sound. 

"Oh please, I was NOT looking at your dick-"

"Yeah, just like you weren't looking at my "nice ass"?" Keith smirked at Lance's mortified expression and turned back to the road ahead of him.

_pft, nice ass._

***

It was twilight, and they were awkwardly draped in a shortish acacia tree with grumbling stomachs. They hadn't spoken in hours, and Keith was purely content with that. Lance on the other hand looked as if he was about to explode. Keith hoped the film crew were frustrated with them, that they had been boring contestants in their weird little survival game.

"So when you went to the barber shop and told them you wanted a mullet-"

"For FUCKS sake lance!" Keit sat up from awkwardly laying in a smooth, cold branch and glaring at a grinning Lance.

"What! I'm just asking!"

"Ok then ask different questions about my fucking hair!" Keith shouted, dropping back into the uncomfortable branch, indulging in the silence and the burning stare of Lance.

"Really? I can ask you other stuff?"

 _Fuck_. This is NOT what Keith had wanted! Keith wanted to make it the 21 days, and opening up for the _cameras_ or _Lance_ was not a necessary component on the list to do this. Why couldn't he have had a chill, quiet partner and not Lance? The chatterbox who hummed and sang about 5 different songs every ten minutes and asked Keith intrusive questions and stared at his ass as if Keith _didn't see him_. Keith's stomach already hurt, and his fingers had about ten different types of natural resources under them.

"No."

"Awww why not? We might as well get to know each other if we're stuck together for 21 days!" Lance nudged Keith's limp leg with his own, his face now barely visible in the increasingly darkening light.

Keith finally conceded because Jesus Christ Lance was persistent and Keith was impatient.

"Fine. What do you wanna know?" Keith blandly asked, hoping to make Lance go "oh, never mind." or "uh nothing". Of course, this was not the case, as Lance fired off a bunch of questions.

"What's your middle name? Favorite food? What's your mom's middle name? Do you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah? Do you-"

"Jesus Christ Lance slow down" Keith cut him off. 

"Uh, my middle name is Akira. My favorite food is probably...i dunno. I don't have one-" Lance gasp dramatically.

"You don't have a favorite FOOD? What the hell Keith?! Are you some freaky alien or something?!"Lance teased him, making Keith roll his eyes and continue.

"My mom doesn't have a middle name-"

"Ok WHAT-"

"Lance do you want me to answer the damn questions or what?!" Keith exasperated, dragging a dirty hand down an even dirtier face. Jesus, it's only been 10 hours and both of them are covered head to toe in muck.

"Continue.." Lance sorely muttered after a while, and Keith sighed,

"And I celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. My best friend Pidge-"

"Pidge? Like Pigeon?!" Lance snorts, and Keith grumbles, something under his breath, something along the lines of "feed you to the lions-"

"So, your best friend Pidge what?" Lance urged him on, and Keith felt an odd sense of surprise in that Lance seemed genuinely interested in his story.

"Well," Keith paused. "When I lived with my best friend Pidge, we celebrated Hanukkah. But now I live with my brother and he celebrates Christmas so we do both." Keith felt his heart shutter with love as he thought of how lucky he was to still be close with his foster family and be able to find his blood brother and be close with him as well. In a lot of situations, orphans drifted away from their foster parents but Coleen always had her door open for Keith, which was greatly appreciated.

"That's awesome. Double the holiday cheer huh?" 

"Yeah. it's pretty special." Keith quiets down, staring out at the now bright sky littered with hundreds of stars. He's partially surprised, because even in Yosemite, he's never seen this many.

"Wow..." Lance murmurs, and Keith can tell he's thinking the same way because of how his silhouette's sharp nose is tilted upwards, lips slightly parted in awe.

Keith takes a minute to admire the sharp cut of Lance's jawline, and how his eyelashes are noticeable even in this dark lighting, . His dark hair is fluffier than earlier, most likely from drying when Lance fell in the river; violating one of the rules _of course_ and making him smell like wet dog.

"What about you?" Keith wonders aloud for once.

"Christmas." Lance chokes out, his voice sounds parched.

"Have you ever seen so many stars? It's gorgeous." Lance breathes out again, and Keith nods.

"Yeah, it is." Keith stares at how Lance's mouth parts again, as if he's telling himself something.

It's only after they've said goodnight to each other that Keith realizes he wasn't even looking at the stars. 

**_DAY 2_ **

Keith and Lance wake up still tangled in the branches of the acacia tree that thankfully shades them from the blistering heat, but makes them shiver when the occasional wind whips through the rough land of the savanna. There's a knot in Keith's shoulder, and he groans in pain as he climbs down from the tree, stretching like a cat and adjusting his burlap sack over his crotch once again. 

"Morning!" Lance chirps, and Keith spins, raising a brow at a bent over Lance, his tan back broadly bending and making the sunlight somehow _bounce_ off his skin. He peaks from behind his leg, as if his full ass isn't displayed for him to just gawk at, a slight shadow at the end and start of his thigh that illustrated really how _nice_ Lance's ass was, and how playful he looked, hiding behind his statuesque and toned leg just to stand back up and spin around, his burlap sack somehow remaining in front of his genitals.

"I used my item to hunt us some fish!" Lance held up a long spear, a shining sharp arrow blade at the end. Lance had a small smile on his face, and the ends of Lance's hair curled awkwardly, in almost a way that Keith wanted to admit was cute.

Oh right, Keith almost forgot about the item they were allowed to bring. Keith brought a little water purifier, he thought it would be the most logical.

"Now we just need to find a water source." Keith pulled his item out of his bag, smiling softly. 

Lance's eyes lit up with surprise, and he eased into a grin. 

"Hey, we covered the basics! Looks like we make a pretty good team, huh?" Lance winked, before turning away. Keith rubbed at his warm cheeks, absentmindedly, glancing around the endless field of grass and a distant pack of what looked like gazelles. 

_Oh yeah, there are animals._

And where there were gazelles, there were ALWAYS lions. 

"Lance, lets eat that quickly. There are still animals around, you know." Keith suggested, and Lance almost comically hid the fish from sight, shoving it in his burlap sack like a dork. Keith snorted.

"Yes, because the thin burlap sack is going to prevent a lion from smelling some fish when it's nose can smell up to a mile away." Keith teased, and Lance whined, still smiling.

"Not funny, _Keith_."

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Because of your bedhead, mullet man." Lance teases, lunging forward and ruffling Keith's hair, who quickly recoils back, hitting the tree.

Hot, prickly pain washes over his body, getting a slight head rush that makes his vision of Lance darken around the corner, like a burning photograph.

"Don't touch me." He spits.

Silence. Lance's expression flickers some sort of embarrassment or hurt momentarily. Then it neutralizes. it's fascinating how Lance seemed so scary in this moment. How is made it even worse that Keith's outer shell of clothing was stripped of him, his attachment to reality that was a stupid cloth only now a burlap sack that hung of his shoulders like a dead corpse that was now dead weight. Keith felt bile rise from his throat, as if the tension and silence was enough to squeeze him like you're getting the last of the toothpaste out of the tube.

"Ok." Lance said. His gaze lingered on Keith, baby blue eyes soft and round, but somehow glaring hot, white knives into his skin. He turned back to the fish on the ground, kneeling down and placing them in his bag. Tall grass dancing as a soft wind blew through it, Keith gulped and walked into it. The tall grass came up to his waist, and it was one of the first times he didn't feel completely- exposed. Keith let out a sigh, and when he turned around, he found Lance behind him. Keith couldn't help but jump back slightly. 

"We should go." Lance said, before turning and brushing his lythe fingers across the blue marker. Keith tried not to think of how Lance had two dimples near the bottom of his mocha back, and he swallowed something sour, trailing after him.

And that was the end of that.

**_DAY 3_ **

They both started to fall into a peculiar routine that became more and more noticeable. Wake up, eat, talk, sleep. It's quite a simple routine if you think about it, but it's so unusual to Keith that it shocks him he falls into it so easily. He's used to waking up at 5:00 in the morning to get to the gym and walk his dog, before quickly going off to work and then squeezing in whatever frantic activity he can after that. Not just, chillness. if anything, surviving seems easy. Keith is most likely jinxing himself, but _when is he not?_

Keith thinks about the hostile encounter yesterday. He regrets it. For many reasons, but the main one is that the face Lance made terrified him for some reason. It made his stomach clench and his hands seize. 

Keith notices more things about Lance everyday. How as we get closer to the forest, Lance seems to cower and shrink. What is he afraid of? Is it because they aren't out in the open anymore? Keith wonders if the cameras are filming them as they speak. He wonders what Lance is thinking. He's been fairly quiet since yesterday, and Keith hates the feeling of need to annoy or get Lance's attention that manages to crawl into his rib cage and permanently nestle there for hibernation. It shakes him and makes him shake in chills sometimes. 

Lance has dirt on his cheek. Keith wants to point it out. How did he become the one who wants to talk? 

"You never told me." Keith blurts out, practically biting his tongue when Lance looks over at him, surprise dancing in his cornflower blue eyes that bring Keith an odd sense of relief. 

"I never told you what?" His voice seems a bit hoarse from not being used for so long, which makes Keith almost laugh.

"You told me your family celebrated Christmas, but you never went in depth about it like I did." Keith glanced at a lizard who was sunbathing on a rock they walked by. Keith's feet ached, but he'd rather dance across hot coals than sit down with lance right now.

He hears Lance huff, and chuckle.

"We celebrate Christmas in Cuba, my home."

"You're Cuban?" Keith never would have specifically guessed Cuban, which sparks a twinge of guilt in his stomach. 

"Mhm" Lance hums, smiling. "100%. We celebrate in Varadaro, Cuba because that's where my abuela lives and my mom refuses to do Christmas without her. It's really sweet actually, we open presents in abuela's bedroom because she can't get up out of bed and she hates her wheel chair because she feels like a _vieja bruja_." Lance laughs, and so does Keith, even though he doesn't know what it means.

"Thank you for telling me."

"Thank you for asking." Lance glanced at Keith out of the corner of his eye and let himself smile.

Keith contained the embarrassing goofy smile that threatened to split his lips, and focused on looking at the shimmering rover that stretched next to them and rippled every once and a while, oddly reminding him of the camera crew. They were approaching the vast forest that was not so ant-like anymore, and Keith gulped almost _comically_ , glancing back forlornly at the savanna. That's when he saw it. Something was in the tall grass.

The last of the tall grass clustered in cliques across the outskirts of the savanna, and now green, lush grass licked their bare feet. Keith squinted his eyes to make out something in the tall grass, when he realized. A crouching lioness, butterscotch short fur and balancing on her haunches perfectly, eyes trained on them like tractor beams.

"Lance."

"What Keith-"

"Drop the bag." Keith remembered the fish. 

"What? Keith are you crazy-"

"Lance for the love of god trust me and drop the god damn bag." Keith's heart rate quickened every time the lioness flicked her tail impatiently, trying to decide if she wanted to attack the human or the delicious smelling fish in Lance's bag. God dammit Lance! Keith told you to eat the fish not save it!

Lance doesn't move, but when he does, he slowly takes off the bag, and throws it to the side. Keith swallows, his eyes still trained on the lioness in the tall grass. Keith wracks his brain filled with survival skills about how to survive a lion attack, but doesn't recall anything. He slowly backs up.

"Do as I do." Keith knows Lance sees her too, because of the small gasp that escapes him. Keith wants more than anything to look at Lance's face right now, to make sure he's ok, but he knows if he were to, the lioness would pounce. 

She leans back, and nimbly jumped. 

Keith grabs Lance's hand, and sprints toward the dark forest, not bothering to look behind and see if the lion went for the fish or not. He feels Lance tighten his hold on Keith's hand, and Keith really shouldn't be thinking about how long and sturdy Lance's fingers are, or how they wrap and clutch Keith's smaller hand perfectly, like some sort of molded piece of machinery or puzzle piece. He thinks about this as dashes into the dark forest, not bothering to look back through the curtain of lush greenery to the beautiful savanna, or even to Lance. Well, because Lance is beside him clutching his hand, and he knows if he does, he's not sure if he'll be able to start running again. They don't stop running until they reach a thickly trunked tree,panting and wheezing, and they reluctantly turn around, the dark gaping mouth of the forest the only thing that throws them off canter. Relief releases all the tension from Keith's body when he realizes the lioness is _not_ trailing after them.

He lets out a loud sigh, smiling slightly and turning to Lance. His cheeks are flushed and he's wheezing slightly, but he's looking down. Keith glances down, to see their tightly locked hands. The feeling of Lance's palm in his refills his senses, and he feels his chest lock up tighter when Lance squeezes his hand tighter. Keith smiles, glancing up at Lance, who's grinning like an idiot.

Keith looks out into the jungle, it's dark, and thick vines hang down from the canopy ceiling that makes everything an odd shade of green. A blue marker on a mossy tree catches his eye, and he's reminded of what he's here to do. Not to be a pawn of some romantic sappy movie. Keith loosens his grip, looking down at his feet, now only realizing Lance is fully naked. Keith ignores the pressing feeling in his mind telling him to look, and disappointment sinks into his stomach when Lance recoils his hand as well.

"Right, well...let's carry on." Keith mumbles, tromping through the thickly mossy trees, ignoring everything except the damp feeling in his nose and the squishy moss under his feet.

He smiles to himself when he hears Lance's footsteps close behind as well.

**Author's Note:**

> holy FUCK this is long i apologize!!!! since this was the first few days i just wanted to lay the land before i started getting into the plot information. stay tuned for chapter 2! day 4-6, where lance and keith share more moments, someone gets stung by a spider, and the crew drops in to make sure everything is ok.  
> songs i jammed to while writing this:  
> see you again- tyler the creator  
> earfquake- tyler the creator  
> heartbeat away- bleached  
> hard to kill- bleached  
> daydream- bleached  
> rebound city- bleached  
> Valley to La- bleached  
> I'm Ready- ajr  
> cake by the ocean- dnce  
> sweater weather- the neighborhood  
> Don't Go breaking My Heart- Elton John  
> Rocket Man- Elton John  
> Tiny Dancer- Elton John  
> Space Oddity- David Bowie  
> Your Song- Elton John  
> cancer- mcr  
> To the End- mcr  
> Bohemian Rhapsody- queen


End file.
